AtomicMrX

Saturday I got my replacement check/debit Visa card. I was so relieved. I had a reoccurring bill coming Monday and didn’t know how I was going to pay it. I went through all the “electronic” bills and moved then over to the new card number and I feel much better now. All back to normal.

To celebrate I played on the Wii all afternoon. A little Mario Kart 64, a little Pac Man, a little Donkey Kong, ending up with a little Wii Play. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t play for hours and hours, well okay a couple hours or so. But really I only played Pac Man and Donkey Kong for about 15 minutes each. I’m not very good and so it didn’t last long.

I made it through our six month special at work without being late or leaving early so I earned $180.00; less the 401K and it will be around $130 to $150 but still great just for being on time to work!

I was looking over my checking account online and notice four transactions in the amount of $20.00 that I had no idea where they came from. -sinking feeling- I called my bank and asked them to give me more information on the mystery transactions. They then forwarded me to the security department and it appears my credit card number has been obtained through some records (somewhere) getting compromised.

In a couple of hours my current bank credit/debit card will become canceled. I will be getting a new card in the mail in about five days (more than likely working days and not the weekend). So tomorrow morning I’m heading up to my bank and requesting an ATM card which they can hand out on the spot to hold me over till the real deal comes in the mail (a week later).

I do everything with my credit/debit card. I use it like a check. I pay for everything online with it and this will be a very big headache to transition through. Oh well, at least it wasn’t identity theft… I was just a number on a long sheet on numbers.

I have Verizon for my mobile phone and my “New every 2 years” plan is up. So Shannon and I went to the Verizon store to look at what they have to offer. I am just not impressed with any of the current phones. My phone is working perfectly fine and is in pristine condition, so it really doesn’t make any sense to get a new phone just to have a new phone that I don’t care for the features on.

I saw the new Motorola MOTRAZR2 V9m and it is the thinest phone that Verizon has which is a great feature but it would cost me $250.00 and after a $100.00 mail-in rebate it would end up costing $150.00 - but that is too much right now. I don’t have it! So I am going to wait and see if the price drops or they come out with some other phones in the next few months.

I am looking for a phone that has the 2 year contract with a price of $99.00 - then it would be free for me and my “New every 2 years” plan.

Two years ago when I got the phone I’m currently using, I got it for the $99.00 (free for me) and it came with a free phone (for Shannon). I’m looking for a great deal like that again! Plus I want to be excited about the phone. How it looks, how it feels and cool features. I am not excited about any of the current phones available. So I will wait - and it should not screw around with my contract - I called and verified this to make sure!

I finally got some new tennis shoes (about a year over due) - they are not really for tennis - it’s just what I call them. They are Sketchers of course - the only brand I’ll buy because they fit my size 10.5 wide feet perfectly!. Shannon and I stopped at DSW Shoes after visiting Verizon. They are really cool looking. Kind of like 1950’s wrestling shoes - sort of. They are black leather with dark gray leather stripes and a very square toe.

My fellow employees found an article in the local Kansas City Star newspaper that just plain got everybody disgruntled. The article lists the Area manufactures ranked by number of local employees. Here is a copy of the ranking - click on it to make it larger to read. We ranked number 12 you’ll have to scroll down to see it.

The whole stink of it all was the money amount listed. Everyone saw that and thought “I should get paid a lot more!” and “They should pay off my student loans!” - stuff like that. All the people making the stink know nothing about running a business and haven’t a clue as to what it would take to keep a company as large as ours (employee wise) running for as long as it has. Gill Studios Inc. was founded in 1934 so it’s been around for 73 years now. That says something right there.

I thought it was interesting that Hallmark Cards Inc. was not on the list. But then again this is only for local employees and they have a lot of people spread out through multiple factories not located here in Kansas City.

Oh, and we did a TON of pre-flight today - meaning there will be orders to do in the next few days out the wa-zoo! Usually we do about 10 to 12 pre-flight a day (each) and I did 36 just today alone! That was more that the total of the last few weeks put together! Pre-flight is were we open up customer email/digital art and see if there are any problems with it or concerns before it becomes a real order and it’s worked on by an artist. There are six of us that both pre-flight and are artists. The rest of the room (around 45 people) are just artists.

I volunteered for two hours of over time today. I need the money so I just can’t say no. When I got home Shannon had made a great dinner of home-made french fries and a big juicy hamburger. It was all good! Made the over time well worth it!

The temperature dropped today like crazy. When I got off work at 5:30 PM it was practically cold! There was a good wind blowing and the air was quite misty. It tried to rain but never really got it going. I actually turned the heat on in the car for awhile to get the chill off.

It’s suppose to be cool all week (mid to upper 70’s). Looks like I’ll have to finish painting the house very soon. (ugh!)